Plans unveiled for Orient Community Commons

A committee assembled to explore uses for the former Orient-Macksburg Community School facility made its plans public last week.

The Orient Community Commons Committee is a group of 13 people interested in seeing the Orient Community Commons, as the facility will be known, thrive in its new era. The venture is a joint effort between the city of Orient and Orient Area Betterment and Improvement Corporation.

The group’s vision calls for “creating a hub for community events, programs and services the community can all use; supporting local organizations, families and businesses with spaces to use, rent or lease; building a destination that attracts visitors and opportunities to the region; and preserving a cherished landmark while sustaining and enhancing the community.”

The OCC will include an events center, including the gymnasium, along with meeting spaces of varying sizes; community facilities, such as the library and fitness center; and mixed-use, leasable space that accounts for the remainder of the building. Committee spokesperson Ryan Frederick described those spaces as “co-working opportunities on steroids.”

As a result of the plan, the library will receive an expansion. In the leasable space area of the building that mainly includes the classrooms on the south side of the building, a sidewalk and exterior doors have been added.

“I think everybody that’s been involved up to this point is very excited to be able to share this with the community. It’s not very often that you have the privilege of sitting on a committee with a group of people who are genuinely excited about what they’re working on, but that’s how this has really been,” Frederick said. “To be able to say, ‘Here is the future and this is what this looks like,’ is really terrific.”

The committee continues to seek community partnerships for the project through donations that can go toward commemorative bricks, donor wall recognition, naming rights and in-kind donations. More information is available by visiting the City of Orient’s website, which has a tab for the OCC, or the center’s Facebook page.

Those interested in using the facility in the future or donating to it may reach out to occ@orientiowa.com.

“We have a fundraising and finance committee that folks can talk to, depending on what size gift they’re willing and able to make. We have what I think is a very accessible incentive program for our fundraising campaign. We’re hoping people will take advantage of that,” Frederick said.

While losing its school has been a difficult blow to the community, Frederick is encouraged by the step the community is taking to keep its school building in use.

“There aren’t a lot bigger gut punches you can deliver to a community than, ‘Here goes your school.’ I think, as far as attempts to turn what is without doubt a monumental negative into an enduring positive goes, this is a really substantial plan,” Frederick said. “I think it has the potential to really do some great things — not only in our local community, but regionally.”

The 1921 three-story portion of the school was razed this spring and grass seeding of that area of the campus has already taken place.